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Various gadget/toy venues are writing about the Toyota Winglet, a diminutive Segway-like personal transporter. (Toyota took over Sony's robot division a year back.) It comes in three sizes and offers about a third the speed and a quarter the range of the Segway; on the upside, it charges in an hour vs. Segway's 10 hours. Wired writes: "The Winglet is the first gadget to duplicate the celebrated, and often mocked, navigation system of the Segway Transporter."

buy a bicycle. As much range as you have energy for, fits almost the same places a segway does, doesn't use gas, cheaper, and get this, is actual exercise. Something most people in the places that can afford one of these things can use more of.

3.7mph is a fast walk, and remember that's maximum top speed (so it probably only gets that going downhill) and I'm sure that's if the passenger is a ideal weight, but the release [toyota.co.jp] doesn't disclose weight limit.

I have a feeling people will be walking pass people riding on these so I think they'll have a hard time selling them if they're more than $100. Even the $99 electric scooter @ Walmart does 10mph [walmart.com] so who'd want a Se

Hereâ(TM)s a look at the models that Toyota will be testing out in the fall at the Central Japan International Airport (Centrair) near Nagoya, and Laguna Gamagori, a seaside resort complex in Aichi Prefecture. Toyota will test the Winglet in shopping crowds in 2009.

The city I'm in is one of the God only knows how many places which reflexively banned Segways the moment someone managed to fall off them. Thanks to the cotton-padded-life, zero-risk crowd, the cops confiscate them on sight here.

(Of course, I'm wondering how quickly that would have happened to bicycles had they been invented in the last few years. I'm guessing there'd be federal laws against them by now.)

You have a physically demanding job, yet cannot show up to work after breaking a sweat? Either your job isn't physically demanding, or you think that sweat is only worth sweating out if you're being paid for it.

And if you haven't got the energy left for a 10km ride on a bicycle at the end of the day, then how on earth do you have the energy to stand on a Segway for an hour?

The amount of sweat you will emit is highly correlated with the amount of training.

Right there you show your ignorance. Try riding a bike ANYWHERE in a humid climate and tell me how dry you stay. Or just a plain hot climate -- try riding your bike 5 miles to work when it's 90F outside.

Speaking of humid climates, in many humid climates they have these things called "rainy season", or just the usual scattered heavy downpours. The rain/storm can be rather heavy and it can last for at least an hour or two (and then it could still keep going for quite a long while after - just not as heavy). So either you get really wet or you end up two hours late, or you get hospitalized after you cycle into a open hole/drain that didn't show up because the road and hole was evenly covered with water (and n

I've actually been in the US, in Florida, during summer. Nothing that much terrible that can't be handled by simply having a spare set of clothes for work.

I used to live in Florida too, and biking there was much more feasable. We had maybe a month or two where it was in the 80's in the morning, but the rest of the year it was beautiful. All the streets there had bike lanes too! Then I moved to Oklahoma. Suddenly, unless you work at a stables or a distillery or something, there's also the issue of body odor.

I don't see how this got a "troll" moderation - frankly, if anything, it's a humorously scathing indictment of the fatal flaw in the entire Segway-style transportation industry - people need to get off their ass and walk more.

Also, since Gob Bluth actually *does* ride a Segway, it's even more on-point. If only to show what a self-absorbed twit the character is.:)

I agree most people should walk, but where you're seeing Segways being used, I think, there's a benefit. There's nothing wrong with making the job of some security guy easier. I've seen these at the Atlanta airport, where the train system is like a mile long, and several classes of employees need to go all the way from the main terminal to the end and back, and they don't need to wait for the train system (which can be quite crowded at times anyway).

I wonder for who is the smallest model. It has a range of 5km. But it's so small I can probably use it to drive from my car to grocery store on opposite side of parking lot. With it's whopping 6km/h speed I will be there faster than my 4km/h walking.

Thats not the question. The real question is, "how can I sit on the couch and get somebody to come stuff my pie hole with processed chemical laden food so that I don't miss anything on the boob toob".

The Tivo was only a partial answer. I don't know if anybody saw Wall-E yet so spoiler ahead, but there are people in the future that are fat, live on hyper sleds, and do nothing but watch advertisement-laden tv while stuffing their pie holes with food. I was laughing really hard and the kids did not get it.

"I don't know if anybody saw Wall-E yet so spoiler ahead, but there are people in the future that are fat, live on hyper sleds, and do nothing but watch advertisement-laden tv while stuffing their pie holes with food."

only fast-food at that, and sucking down soda. I thought of the movie too when I saw this article.

And I was just going to ask "WTF is a Segway", because they've not taken this part of the world by storm. Or did you mean the world according to most Americans? In fact, other than on the TV news, I've never actually seen a Segway, and I have travelled quite extensively.

In fact, other than on the TV news, I've never actually seen a Segway, and I have travelled quite extensively.

The rent-a-cops in the mighty King of Prussia Mall sometimes ride them. Though I can't imagine what they do if they actually have to chase someone. I can just see a misbehaving teenager staying 10 feet ahead and taunting the guard mercilessly.

Actually, here in Charlotte NC, I recently have been noticing allot of Segways being used by the local police in the downtown area, and also by park security in one of most popular parks.Laugh if you will, but the older gentleman in the park was actually doing fairly fast laps around the park, and easily covering more area that 2 or 3 people would, even on a bike he would have gotten tired much more quickly and not have been scooting around like this.The police in the downtown area were in a line of about 8

The funny thing is I was serious... they made such a huge fuss about it on things like the Today show.

I was watching Today when the Segway was introduced. For like two fucking hours (my parents told me about the "revolution" thing) they talked about this mysterious thing. My mind is racing - "hovercraft? It has to be a personal hovercraft. Or a fucking jetpack!"

And then they bring this thing out and my heart sinks. My first thought was "This thing is a joke... right?"

I have seen one perfectly valid use of the segway, and having travelled the same area for the same length of time, agree it would be worthwhile: Large Conventions. Seriously. If you have a convention you're going to be at for 12+ hours out of a day, spanning anywhere from a quarter to 2 miles (think fairgrounds perhaps here) then being able to hang a ride on a device like that could be a godsend for your legs (when I was doing it on foot I barely had enough energy left to either walk the half mile back to my hotel, or worse yet the half mile to my car followed by a commute out of town to my hotel.) For things like that it makes perfect sense. And according to the guy I talked to who had one, it used basically no power while idle, so if you plan out your route through the convention center well, you can spend all day there and only use perhaps 3/4 of your charge. Furthermore there ARE people with knee and hip injuries who it would help feel less bad about their condition that running around on canes/crutches/wheelchairs. Look I'm hip I've got a segway. It's not that I can't walk, I'm just too cool to do it!:)

And large airports. The airport crew in some European airports use Segways for getting to and fro. IMHO works better than the golf-carts they used to use (and still use for lugging stuff and disabled people around).

Well yeah... it works better for crews that need to get around fast but do not need to carry a lot of cargo (security and whatnot). The only downside is if someone whips out a pistol and shoots at you, you'll have cover for your ankles and that's about it. At least you can hide behind a golf cart. (;

Seriously. If you have a convention you're going to be at for 12+ hours out of a day, spanning anywhere from a quarter to 2 miles (think fairgrounds perhaps here) then being able to hang a ride on a device like that could be a godsend for your legs (when I was doing it on foot I barely had enough energy left to either walk the half mile back to my hotel, or worse yet the half mile to my car followed by a commute out of town to my hotel.)

No offense, but if you have trouble walking 2 miles in a couple of hours, you should probably use every opportunity to get some exercise.

Your point about Segways being a kind of hipper wheelchair makes sense, though.

I'm not saying that it isn't exhausting, but I don't think that walking is the problem here, standing is. In fact, when I have to stand for a long time, I'm pretty happy when I can walk around for a while (and definitely would not pass on this chance so I can stand on a vehicle instead).

I have to disagree here. Standing on your feet all day, and traversing the length of a convention multiple times (he said spanning a quarter to two miles) will really wear you out. Its a whole different ball game than running a marathon (which I've also done). You may not be as physically exhausted at the end, but you'll still be tired, and have sore feet/legs. That said, I think the real value of a Segway at a convention would be for people like event coordinators, whose job is to rush from one end of

I am going to go out on a limb and state that the Segway has almost no real legitimate use.

The first cars were pretty useless too. They were just difficult-to-use steam powered locomotives with wheels bolted on. If the Segway and its clones can evolve to become anything halfway decent fifty years from now, then the more power to them.

That being said, aside from the gadget-allure of this smaller Segway-clone, it might be something that's allowed on subway lines. In my neck of the woods, bicycles are not al

I had the chance to try out a Segway a few years ago, and the salesman told me they were pitching it at three main market segments:

1. The elderly. As has already been mentioned in this discussion, a Segway can be used as a "hipper wheelchair". For elderly folk with limited mobility (i.e. they no longer have the energy required to pedal their bikes through possibly hilly areas) a Segway provides a faster, more elegant, and, yes, cooler alternative to an electronic wheelchair.

You know I actually ride my bike to work everyday about 3 miles each way and if a Segway was cheaper I'd get one for the days it is unbearably hot. I live in Florida and some mornings it's a balmy 85 and with no shower at work I gotta do my best to change my clothes and clean up when I get to work.

But that's just my particular situation. I don't think the Segway was intended to replace traditional transportation, but instead to fit into a particular niche that it works fairly well in. In fact, I pass a guy

These would be cool at big stores. I hate walking around all the fat sweaty people at walmart to get to the automotive section or something. If I had one of these, I could probably use speed and agility to avoid their odor and plump bodies, or just run them down by attaching spikes to the front.

It doesnt exactly take much to kill something that was barely alive anyways (mostly just have to pull out the plug from the resperator). There's also geeks out there who have put together their own segways [tlb.org] for far less than what the actual company wants. IMHO, if I didnt think it looked so douchey to ride one, I'd think it would be pretty awesome to build something like that at home for fun.

Your parallel runs a bit thin though. I happen to know that Sony remained market leader for walkmans despite many others entering the field. Many made a profit. But if you'd used Philips as an example, they used to be in the habit to pioneer a new market(cd, dvd) and then have others run away with it.

It can happen that a tiny but viable market is killed by competitors entering the field but it can also happen that the competitors cause the market to grow.

While its funny to cite Bush's folly with one my friend did the same damn thing and apparently it is pretty common or should I say it used to be. Apparently they had to change some of the programming to prevent that problem.

In other words, it was a defect and they were lucky he didn't get hurt

Not bad for a bona-fide geek, huh? So just because you dedicated your life to science or engineering, doesn't mean you can't please the ladies. Bicycle, my friends, and your quads arms and posterior will develop! Plus, you'll enjoy your commute. There are few things as enjoyable as the speed and elegance of a bike ride.

The "handlebars" on "M" and "S" look like they are directly above the wheels and foot plates. On the Segway and on the "L" model, they are positioned ahead of that point. Try to picture someone using the "M" and "S", and the handlebar will be tucked in the rider's stomach if the foot plates are horizontal.

I've seen Segways up close and I think they're pretty cool. But what about the possibility of theft when you have to leave your personal transporter parked outside of a store or office? I know that the Segway HT has a somewhat secure system that prevents unauthorized starting, but what about the case of a thief just grabbing the machine and stuffing it into a van for a quick trip to the chop shop? Furthermore, it seems that the smaller transporters mention in the article would be even easier to steal.

This to me seems to reflect too common a pattern. An American company comes up with an interesting idea but basically does nothing to update or improve it. As far as I can tell all they did was and add a low battery warning so that people wouldn't fall on their faces. Looking at their site it seems they've also offered options car carrying cargo or golf clubs. That's pretty much it.

And now here comes a Japanese company, taking essentially the same technology, and doing something different and interesting w

A lot of us have been disappointed in the Segway. However, having my PhD in robotics, I've been downright frustrated.

While I would agree that Dean Kamen is "inventive" and very good at marketing, his products are not at all ground breaking in terms of technology. To add insult to injury his products are way over priced.

Robotics has been able to do his Segway balance trick for many decades. "Gee, sense where center of mass has moved and move the support position under it." In fact, we've been able to do a two link version of this problem as well (Think one Segway on top of another except the top segway has no power.)

However, Kamen burns through $150M duplicating the already known and is heralded as the most visionary man on the planet. Puuhleeeease.

His iBot wheelchair is the better of his products (It, by the way only requires the same basic robotics principle as the Segway.) It is slightly more "visionary" on its application and appreciably more sophisticated in its control loops to provide stair climbing abilities. But again... the cost of this beast is $26K. Placing it quite out of reach of most people who need it.

I'm sure somebody who is a better manager at actually manufacturing a product at reasonable costs could knock these off at half the price or less and provide a greater good to the world than Kamen does by having his face plastered all over magazines. But, sadly, they can't can't because of Kamen's patents.

I hope Toyota teaches him a lesson about how to really manufacture and sell a product. But, personally, I think the the entire Segway concept is flawed. A "trick" that is cute to behold but the luster wears off fast enough that people come to their senses before actually buying something they don't really need.

Good thing that most of us tagged this product as a toy, because it really is.If you are looking for something green, affordable and healthy to do your moderate daily commute consider getting a portable bicycle.They are a blast in Europe and with current gas prices we may begin to see more of them in USA.Really practical if you gotta do only a few miles, live in a large city or public transportation isn't an option.

Many roads, sidewalks, and boardwalks have specifically legalized it on the roads of the US. So if you wanted to make say... a robot that advertises for you, it would be legal if you used a Segway as the chassis. I'm not sure if similar devices are legal, but I'm sure you'd probably get by law with one.

As a handicapped "mobility impaired" person I would very much like to have something similar to this: small, light, easy to use, and, I assume, reliable.

While I'm no longer in the wheelchair I spent three years in, I am limited in how far I can walk, even with assistance - after about 200 feet I've hit my limit.:o(

Something like this unit just might extend my range enough to be able to get around in a mall, or even a larger store while standing.

That would be much better than a wheelchair in a number of ways... Since it puts weight on the legs, it helps to maintain skeletal strength, being lighter than the typical powered wheelchair or motorized scooter mobility aid (which can weigh up to 600 pounds including occupant) it could be safer for others as well as easier to transport, and instead of rolling about with my face at crotch level, I'd be eye-to-eye with other humans.

If the cost ends up reasonable, I'll be looking into one once it makes it's debut.